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Missouri Digital News
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Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
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Mo. Digital News
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Missouri Digital News
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Missouri Digital News
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Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
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Mo. Digital News
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Missouri Digital News
An eight-hour filibuster killed legislation to continue extra state funding to St. Louis and Kansas City schools after the federal courts stop ordering extra desegregation payments by the state.
Several rural legislators complained the bill was unfair to students in rural and suburban school districts. The opponents offered amendment after amendment in a marathon Senate session that did not end until Senate leaders concluded it was impossible to get to a final vote on the bill.
Bill supporters, led by former U.S. Senator John Danforth and metro area business leaders, had warned that city schools will face serious problems if there was a sudden halt to the desegregation funds upon which the schools have become dependent.
See our newspaper story for further details.
Missouri's attorney general announced Wednesday that he has decided to have his office join in the lawsuits against the tobacco industry.
For several months, Nixon had declined to join in the suits -- saying it would save the state money to wait and see what happens to the lawsuits filed by other states.
Last week, Nixon refused any comment on the settlement negotations being conducted by the tobacco industry and several states.
See our newspaper story for details.
A measure that kick the governor out of the Capitol building passed Missouri's House and has gone to the Senate.
The measure, which cleared the House by voice vote, would turn over to the legislature the entire Capitol building -- including the offices of the governor and other statewide elected officials.
Missouri law gives the legislature power to take any space in the building it wants, without any veto power by the governor.
See our newspaper story for more information and reaction to the idea from the Senate.
The Senate gave first round approval to a measure that would allow off-track betting on horse races.
Supporters say off-track betting is needed in order to attact a race track operation to Missouri.
Voters approved legalized on-track betting more than a decade ago.
The bill faces one more Senate vote before going to the House. But with just three weeks left in the session and clearing first-round approval by just one vote in the Senate, chances for the measure appear dim.
For more information, see a newspaper background feature on horse race gambling and the Senate roll-call vote.
By almost a straight party-line vote, the House narrowly gave first-round approval to the governor's proposal to set up a health insurance pool for children.
Of the 75 House Republicans, only 4 voted for the measure while all but one Democrat voted in support of the bill.
The measure would set up a state organization to solicit low-cost health insurance plans for children.
Government would not spend money for the actual insurance, that still would be the parents' responsiblity. But by soliciting bids for a statewide insurance deal, supporters of the bill say it would reduce costs.
See the House roll call.
The Senate narrowly approved an amendment that would let local voters reconsider the issue of riverboat gambling.
The amendment would let the voters get on the ballot a proposal to prohibit gambling anytime after it had been approved -- and even after the gambling boat began operation.
The amendment was tacked onto a bill to prohibit children on gambling boats. After adoption of the amendment, the sponsor stopped Senate debate on the measure and put it aside for the time being.
See the Senate roll call.
For yet another day, the Senate was unable to get to a vote on a measure to continue funding to St. Louis and Kansas City schools after the courts stop ordering the state to make desegregation payments.
Supporters use terms like "train wreck" to describe what will happen to the two urban school districts if the extra funding were to be cut off suddenly.
See our radio story for more information.